The crater ring obscured the Demon’s bottom half. But not Dnoeth’s view of thick black arms and legs slowly unfolding. Seeing this for the second time didn’t make it any less unnerving, and he worked to control his breathing.

Interestingly, its curving horns weren’t moving yet, meaning its head wasn’t. Wasn’t it faster last time?

He focused, remembered the cliff road–it was moving more slowly this time. It’s hurt or stunned, he realized.

Why? The brief flash of curiosity vanished as Ramal’s last words rang in his head.

“This plan will fail. Just accept that now. So, pay attention to everything, look for any advantage or any weakness and, if you see something–use it. Call it out, if possible. We need to keep it guessing. Most importantly, if you see a clean opening, don’t hesitate–hurt the fucker.”

His gut jerked at his attention with a sudden urgency that banished fear, and Dnoeth’s mind sharpened. This was an opportunity–a clean opening.

He shifted his Cyff to Glaivis and circled around to the right, toward the thing’s head. This is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid, his mind broke in. But in his gut, he could feel that it wasn’t, and he shut that thought down.

Reaching the crater, he pressed against a rock right behind its head. Breathing as quietly as he could, Dnoeth activated essential sight, then turned and looked, catching its head just starting to roll back. And right before him, both easily as thick as his upper arm, were the horns. Behind the battering ram horns rose the profile of two massive mandibles, lined with barbs and stained with black ooze.

His hands broke in cold sweat. The horns… were blazing.

It was a deep violet, almost blue, essential energy generating a corona, as if his vision was clouded. But it wasn’t. They contained that much power, a massive concentration–many times more than anything he’d seen so far. Then, as he stared in horror, his gut brought time to a near standstill.

Dnoeth’s instincts had never been more clear–he had to remove the horns. Somehow, he just knew it. If he didn’t, even a direct strike to the skull would be meaningless. The horns had to go first.

In what felt like slow motion, he pulled his Glaivis back, stood, and swung.

The dull sheen of the Daedrium arched around and struck into the first horn. The edge cut into grey bone, and Dnoeth was rocked by an eruption of chimes and bells in his mind as his bound Daedrium went crazy. As if a hundred church towers were perched above an orchestra, one comprised entirely of bells, all of them ringing exuberantly.

The joyous cacophony was totally unexpected, and Dnoeth flinched back reflexively.

His flinch, combined with the momentum sapped by cutting the first horn, caused his Glaivis to only nick the second. When it did, his Daedrium rang again. He began to draw back, to finish the job, then there was another sound. A furious warble vibrated his insides, rising from the Demon, and its mandibles came for him.

Dnoeth fell more than dodged backward, but it didn’t matter because the huge pincers missed. The scatter of stone debris was everywhere, and a rock stabbed into the middle of his back. His head hit another, deflecting it right. His armor blunted the one in his back, although it still hurt and shaved off a sliver of life. But head strike just shifted his Daedrium armored skull to one side.

Adrenaline raced through him as he spun his legs away from the Demon and bolted upright. Moving with speed and agility he’d never known on Earth, Dnoeth was running before the Demon could get a bead on him.

It was screaming, and suddenly there was the sound of stones crashing. Glancing back, he saw it still lying prone, swinging massive arms blindly through the rim of the crater where he’d just been. Instantly the area was swept clean, leaving a clear path through the chest-high stone.

Dnoeth’s Daedrium was still ecstatic, but its ringing had calmed, and he caught meaning in its melodic communication. His one blow had massively impacted the creature’s power.

The understanding energized, brought with it belief, and Dnoeth found himself reveling in his avatar’s physical prowess. He’d been able to move so quickly and with such confidence. I love this body, he thought, then getting present, Focus! Focus Dnoeth.

He skidded into the tunnel opening and turned halfway back. Unbelievably, the Demon was already on its feet and coming for him, and it was not moving slowly. This was not the lumbering demon they’d run from on the cliffside road.

In his small corner map, it was instantly within the red circle that Ramal estimated to be its maximum tongue reach. Six raging red eyes fixed on him, its jaw split, saliva spilled out, and a black tongue lashed out.

“Shit!” Dnoeth dodged to the side, his shoulder hit the tunnel wall, and he swung his Glaivis. The tongue recoiled from his weapon, and Dnoeth didn’t hesitate. He sprinted down the tunnel.

Shifting his Cyff to its smallest form, the Bladed Aegis, he picked up more speed, desperately needing to outrun the suddenly much faster Demon. Behind him, it chittered horribly and crashed into the tunnel wall. Dnoeth extended his lead, and the Demon dropped out of the red circle on his map. He let out a mental sigh. Thank you, Ramal.

Ramal watched, hidden in the dark tunnel, his bow drawn, tight reins on his concern as the youngest member of his team stalked in behind the Demon. His Glaivis strike flashed with stunningly fluid power and agility. The horn fell away. Dnoeth dodged the Demon’s counter, but he tripped, and his dodge turned into a fall. Ramal tensed to intervene.

New data flowed to him about the Demon, as if a cloak of mist obscuring it from Ramal’s sensory ability was pulled back.

With his battle awareness burning and totally focused on keeping Dnoeth alive, he let the information sit just outside his attention and absorbed the general meaning. Doing this allowed his instinctual threat response to use everything he could gather to stay alive without interrupting his focus. It was a trick he’d learned in real life, and here in Kuora, it worked exactly the same.

The information was clear–Dnoeth’s attack had drastically reduced the Demon’s threat level.

In the cavern, Dnoeth spun, flipped to his feet, and was away in a flash. It was expertly done, and Ramal was impressed by his body control. He eased the tension on his bow and let himself focus on the new information.

Corrupted Earthbound Baltaris: Level 22 Territorial Guardian

Status: Enfeebled - Effective Level 16

Status: Vengeful Retribution – Haste +48%

Somehow, in removing the horn, Dnoeth had managed to shave eight levels off the demonic terror. How the fuck did he know to attack the horn? More knowledge popcorn? Ramal supposed it could have been that, but in truth he didn’t really care.

In addition to now having access to its name, level, and status, he could also see its relative health, which was full. Despite being a bit slower to its feet, falling more than a mile had done zero damage to the beast.

Ramal wasn’t discouraged though, in fact he was grinning. Yes, its green health bar was full, however, to the right of the green, there was also a long, greyed-out section, nearly as long as the green, with the word, Enfeebled, write large below. I’ll be damned, we might just have a shot.

A second later Ramal’s grin dissolved into a scowl as he watched the previously lumbering behemoth roll to all fours and leap after Dnoeth with alarming speed and agility. Fucking haste, gaud-damnit. Now it’s a fast juggernaut.

When it stood on all fours, the Baltaris had a slopping back as its long front arms pushed the shoulders above the hips. It was a detail he’d overlooked on the cliff road, but a welcomed one as this made its raised head and neck excellent targets.

Ramal drew, touched cold metal fletching to cheek, sighted on the meat of its right shoulder deltoid, just beside the spine, and loosed. Silver steel flashed across the cavern and hammered home on target. The Baltaris chittered wildly and missed a step, slamming into the corner of the tunnel opening.

The cavern shook and loose rocks rained down. Ramal ducked behind the boulder that had conveniently landed right in front of his hiding spot, drew another arrow, and focused on his sensory data collection. In the projection, he saw the Baltaris spin back toward him for only the briefest of moments, then it tore after Dnoeth.

Ramal was out of hiding and following an instant later.

Roxanna crouched well back from the tunnel intersection. She was smiling despite her anxiety. She had a map.

She watched it, breath slow and steady. A cat fixed on a mousehole. Or maybe a mouse on a cathole. She smirked. Her primary job was simple, do blitzkrieg damage. Hit with her sabers and run to the next intersection. It was simple so long as Dnoeth could hold the Demon’s attention and Ramal could prevent it from turning corners cleanly.

The tunnel reverberated with the sound of a collision. It was nothing like the rippling tremors she’d felt when the Demon landed, but it was certainly the beast.

Roxanna flexed her hands in their reverse grips and continued working to keep her breathing calm. If there was no sign of Dnoeth, their jackrabbit, in thirty seconds, she would break cover to do her secondary job. Save Dnoeth. She really didn’t want to do her secondary job.

Dnoeth’s blue indicator streaked onto her map. He was moving fast. She got ready. The Demon’s icon appeared–it was much larger than Dnoeth. Immediately she could tell something wasn’t right. Despite his speed, the thing was closing on Dnoeth.

She took a tentative step forward. Then Ramal’s voice echoed from further back. “Dodge!”

Dnoeth’s indicator jerked laterally into the nearside tunnel wall. Then he came into view, flying horizontally and headfirst through the intersection. She froze, awestruck, as he soared twenty feet before landing in a roll, springing to his feet, and tearing away down the opposite tunnel.

The display was inhuman. Dnoeth had run up the tunnel wall and launched himself off it.

The Demon screamed and barreled into the sharp corner as it missed a step mid-turn. Its whole body appeared to compact and rebound disturbingly. The tunnel shook, and Roxanna struggled to keep her feet as she darted forward. Even on four feet the thing stood higher than she did, and its bulk blocked almost half the way past.

Extending her trailing twin swords along her forearms, she dipped in, planted her outside foot, and pushed at the same time that she levered them into the Demon’s back. It felt like her blades dragged across its obsidian hide, then she was away in an all-out sprint toward Ramal.

Ramal watched as Dnoeth ran up the left wall then exploded like a missile across the tunnel and into the passage that angled 45 degrees right. He couldn’t help but smile, the kid was impressive.

He stopped, drew, sighted, and loosed. The second Daedrium shaft sprouted from the Bartaris’s left shoulder, now a twin to the right, and it stumbled again, slamming broadside into the sharp corner. Another sliver of health fell away.

Roxanna came out of the left passage and cut toward the beast. She broke away from it, her trailing blades raking across its flank, and skittering off its reptilian hide. The creature’s health didn’t budge.

Dammit! Does she have a pure Daedrium weapon? Ramal didn’t think so, at least not one that would be worth a damn in this fight. Could she swing my hammer?

Ramal figured she could. Roxy’s stout form wasn’t just for show, so he pulled the colossal hammer from its loop, dropped it in the middle of the passage, and ran. “Your swords did nothing, Roxy. You need Daedrium. I left my hammer.” Then he passed her going in the opposite direction.

“I can’t strafe with a hammer!” She yelled.

“Figure it out!” Then he was bending right in pursuit.

Dnoeth came out of the roll without losing hardly any speed and grinning. I love this fucking body! He’d always loved movement, always been naturally agile and fast, but this was a whole different world of both. For fuck’s sake, he’d just run up the tunnel wall!

Despite the life and death fight, he was having fun.

Behind him, a chittering howl was followed by another ground shaking collision. The tunnel rumbled around him but Dnoeth was sure footed and he had a good lead now. Even better than when leaving the cavern. It was thrilling.

He actually slowed, it took a few seconds for the beast to recover and he wanted to keep the Demon within his map’s detection radius without stopping. Bad things would happen if it doubled back to attack the others.

Dnoeth’s Daedrium rang like chimes in a breeze. It had been doing so since his sneak attack. This was its purpose and the semi-sentient metal reveled in it. With its energy running through him, he couldn’t hold onto his worry. It slipped away like heather on the same breeze that rang the chimes.